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New Dem Party chair says Baker should skip Israel trip

By Andy Metzger and Michael P. Norton, State House News Service

Updated:
12/08/2016 01:09:18 PM EST

BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker should skip his overseas trade mission and stay home to explain to Massachusetts residents the millions of dollars he cut from the state budget this week, according to the new Democratic Party chairman.

Taking a more aggressive approach than his predecessor, Sen. Thomas McGee, Gus Bickford on Thursday picked up on the anger brewing over Baker's budget cuts and urged Baker to skip his long planned trip to Israel, where Baker hopes to make connections with digital health and cybersecurity interests.

"We call on the Governor to delay his travel plans and use that time to explain to Worcester why he is stripping funding for manufacturing. To the Cape, why he has slashed funding for tourism. To Western Mass, why he is cutting the cable on funding of broadband expansion. To the Merrimack Valley, why he is cutting homeless voucher programs and subsidies to local housing authorities," Bickford, the newly elected Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, said in a statement. "He owes those answers to the people affected."

Baker more than a year ago discussed his plan to visit Israel, a trip that does not seem to have caused much consternation among Beacon Hill Democrats. At least 60 officials representing almost 50 institutions plan to accompany the Republican governor on the nearly week-long trip.

The governor dismissed the criticism at a press conference Thursday.

"Partisan politics is a funny business, don't you think?" Baker said.

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Baker on Tuesday announced $98 million in unilateral spending cuts that he said are needed now to balance the state's $39.25 billion budget in the face of underfunded fixed costs in government and sluggish tax revenue growth.

Some of the cuts hit areas like parks and recreation, senior care, a postpartum depression pilot program, a Down Syndrome clinic and a suicide prevention account. "Obviously these are not things that in the grand scheme of things we would choose to do, but the bottom line is the budget's got to be balanced," Baker said Wednesday, expressing an openness to restoring programs should revenues get "dramatically better."

House Speaker Robert DeLeo said Wednesday that he hoped to restore some of the programs cut with a supplemental budget early next year. DeLeo said the response from senior members of the Legislature has been "anger" toward the cuts, which many Democrats were calling an overreaction by Baker.

"Instead of jetting out of state, Governor Baker needs to stay home and explain to the people of Massachusetts how they'll make up for his millions of dollars in cuts to programs and services that our state's families and businesses depend on," Bickford said.

Baker said the administration had deferred to the Legislature on budget decisions last summer. He said, "We now know what's happened ... The revenue isn't there to support the level of funding in spending that the Legislature appropriated, and we took what we believe are the appropriate actions to ensure that the state budget - which is required to be constitutionally balanced - will be."

Baker advisor Tim Buckley, who is among those taking the trip, told the News Service the governor will leave for Israel Thursday night. He said a total of seven "support staff" are accompanying the governor.

According to Baker's office, the trip won't cost taxpayers anything due to an administration partnership with the New England Israel Business Council and support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Politicians from both parties, including former Gov. Deval Patrick, over the years have encountered static in connection with their out-of-state travel.

In March 2015, the Democratic Party's then-spokesman Pat Beaudry questioned the governor's decision to vacation in Utah, asking "why he's foregoing the seven open ski ranges we have in Massachusetts right now?"

Massachusetts Republican Party spokesman Terry MacCormack said the Democrats were showing desperation.

"This is nothing more than political theater in a desperate attempt to protect the big-spending Democrats on Beacon Hill. The reality is that Governor Baker is the only one taking a serous approach to balancing the budget, while resisting Democrat calls for tax increases - which is why economic experts are yet again praising the Governor's fiscal policies," MacCormack wrote in a statement.

Others accompanying the governor on the trip include University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan, Brandeis University President Ron Liebowitz and Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush.

According to a study cited by the governor's office, Israeli-founded companies in Massachusetts "booked" more than $9 billion in revenue in 2015 and employed 9,000 workers.

A list provided by the governor's office of those making the trip is as follows:

Robert Blumofe, Executive Vice President and General Manager Enterprise & Carrier Division, Akamai

Ido Schoenberg, CEO, American Well

Kristen Rupert, Executive Director, Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) International Business Council

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